Even if we achieve gigantic successes in our work, there is no
reason whatsoever to feel conceited and arrogant. Modesty helps
one to go forward, whereas conceit makes one lag behind. This is a
truth we must always bear in mind.

"Opening Address at the Eighth National
Congress of the Communist Party of China" (September 15,
1956).

With victory, certain moods may grow within the Party
- arrogance, the airs of a self-styled hero, inertia and
unwillingness to make progress, love of pleasure and distaste for
continued hard living. With victory, the people will be grateful
to us and the bourgeoisie will come forward to flatter us. It has
been proved that the enemy cannot conquer us by force of
arms. However, the flattery of the bourgeoisie may conquer the
weak-willed in our ranks. There may be some Communists, who were
not conquered by enemies with guns and were worthy of the name of
heroes for standing up to these enemies, but who cannot withstand
sugar-coated bullets; they will be defeated by sugar-coated
bullets. We must guard against such a situation.

"Report to the Second Plenary Session of the
Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China"
(March 5, 1949), Selected Works, Vol. IV, p. 374.

Many
things may become baggage, may become encumbrances if we cling to
them blindly and uncritically. Let us take some
illustrations. Having made mistakes, you may feel that, come what
may, you are saddled with them and so become dispirited; if you
have not made mistakes, you may feel that you are free from error
and so become conceited. Lack of achievement in work may breed
pessimism and depression, while achievement may breed pride and
arrogance. A comrade with a short record of struggle may shirk
responsibility on this account, while a veteran may become
opinionated because of his long record of struggle. Worker and
peasant comrades, because of pride in their class origin, may look
down upon intellectuals, while intellectuals, because they have a
certain amount of knowledge, may look down upon worker and peasant
comrades. Any specialized skill may be capitalized on and so may
lead to arrogance and contempt of others. Even one's age may
become ground for conceit. The young, because they are bright and
capable, may look down upon the old; and the old, because they are
rich in experience, may look down upon the young. All such things
become encumbrances or baggage if there is no critical
awareness.

Some comrades in the army have become arrogant and
high-handed in their behavior towards the soldiers, the people,
the government and the Party, always blaming the comrades doing
local work but never themselves, always seeing their own
achievements but never their own shortcomings, and always
welcoming flattery but never criticism.... the army must endeavor
to eradicate these faults.

Hard work is like a load placed before us,
challenging us to shoulder it. Some loads are light, some
heavy. Some people prefer the light to the heavy; they pick the
light and shove the heavy on to others. That is not a good
attitude. Some comrades are different; they leave ease and comfort
to others and take the heavy loads themselves; they are the first
to bear hardships the last to enjoy comforts. They are good
comrades. We should all learn from their communist spirit.

There are not a
few people who are irresponsible in their work, preferring the
light to the heavy, shoving the heavy loads on to others and
choosing the easy ones for themselves. At every turn they think of
themselves before others. When they make some small contribution,
they swell with pride and brag about it for fear that others will
not know. They feel no warmth towards comrades and the people but
are cold, indifferent and apathetic. In fact such people are not
Communists, or at least cannot be counted as true
Communists.

Those who assert this kind of
"independence" are usually wedded to the doctrine of
"me first" and are generally wrong on the question of
the relationship between the individual and the Party. Although in
words they profess respect for the Party, in practice they put
themselves first and the Party second. What are these people
after? They are after fame and position and want to be in the
limelight. Whenever they are put in charge of a branch of work,
they assert their "independence". With this aim, they
draw some people in, push others out and resort to boasting,
flattery and touting among-the comrades, thus importing the vulgar
style of the bourgeois political parties into the Communist
Party. It is their dishonesty that causes them to come to grief. I
believe we should do things honestly, for without an honest
attitude it is absolutely impossible to accomplish anything in
this world.

They [Communists] must grasp the principle of
subordinating the needs of the part to the needs of the whole. If
a proposal appears feasible for a partial situation but not for
the situation as a whole, then the part must give way to the
whole. Conversely, if the proposal is not feasible for the part
but is feasible in the light of the situation as a whole, again
the part must give way to the whole. This is what is meant by
considering the situation as a whole.

"The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in
the National War" (October 1938), Selected Works, Vol. II,
p. 201.

Pleasure-seeking. In the Red Army there are also
quite a few people whose individualism finds expression in
pleasure seeking. They always hope that their unit will march into
big cities. They want to go there not to work but to enjoy
themselves. The last thing they want is to work in the Red areas
where life is hard.

We must oppose the tendency towards selfish
departmentalism by which the interests of one's own unit are
looked after to the exclusion of those of others. Whoever is
indifferent to the difficulties of others, refuses to transfer
cadres to other units on request, or releases only the inferior
ones, "using the neighbor's field as an outlet for his
overflow", and does not give the slightest consideration to
other departments, localities or people - such a person is a
selfish departmentalize who has entirely lost the spirit of
communism. Lack of consideration for the whole and complete
indifference to other departments, localities and people are
characteristics of a selfish departmentalist. We must intensify
our efforts to educate such persons and to make them understand
that selfish departmentalism is a sectarian tendency that will
become very dangerous, if allowed to develop.

Liberalism manifests itself in various ways. To let
things slide for the sake of peace and friendship when a person
has clearly gone wrong, and refrain from principled argument
because he is an old acquaintance, a fellow townsman, a
schoolmate, a close friend, a loved one, an old colleague or old
subordinate. Or to touch on the matter lightly instead of going
into it thoroughly, so as to keep on good terms. The result is
that both the organization and the individual are harmed. This is
one type of liberalism. To indulge in irresponsible criticism in
private instead of actively putting forward one's suggestions to
the organization. To say nothing to people to their faces but to
gossip behind their backs, or to say nothing at a meeting but to
gossip afterwards. To show no regard at all for the principles of
collective life but to follow one's own inclination. This is a
second type. To let things drift if they do not affect one
personally; to say as little as possible while knowing perfectly
well what is wrong, to be worldly wise and play safe and seek only
to avoid blame. This is a third type. Not to obey orders but to
give pride of place to one's own opinions. To demand special
consideration from the organization but to reject its
discipline. This is a fourth type. To indulge in personal attacks,
pick quarrels, vent personal spite or seek revenge instead of
entering into an argument and struggling against incorrect views
for the sake of unity or progress or getting the work done
properly. This is a fifth type. To hear incorrect views without
rebutting them and even to hear counter-revolutionary remarks
without reporting them, but instead to take them calmly as if
nothing had happened. This is a sixth type. To be among the masses
and fail to conduct propaganda and agitation or speak at meetings
or conduct investigations and inquiries among them, and instead to
be indifferent to them and show no concern for their well-being,
forgetting that one is a communist and behaving as if one were an
ordinary non-Communist. This is a seventh type. To see someone
harming the interests of the masses and yet not feel indignant, or
dissuade or stop him or reason with him, but to allow him to
continue. This is an eighth type. To work half-heartedly without a
definite plan or direction; to work perfunctorily and muddle along
- "So long as one remains a monk, one goes on tolling the
bell." This is a ninth type. To regard oneself as having
rendered great service to the revolution, to pride oneself on
being a veteran, to disdain minor assignments while being quite
unequal to major tasks, to be slipshod in work and slack in
study. This is a tenth type. To be aware of one's own mistakes and
yet make no attempt to correct them, taking a liberal attitude
towards oneself. This is an eleventh type.

Liberalism is extreme]y
harmful in a revolutionary collective. It is a corrosive which
eats away unity, undermines cohesion, causes apathy and creates
dissension. It robs the revolutionary ranks of compact
organization and strict discipline, prevents policies from being
carried through and alienates the Party organizations from the
masses which the Party leads. It is an extremely bad
tendency.

Ibid., p. 32.

People who are
liberals look upon the principles of Marxism as abstract
dogma. They approve of Marxism, but are not prepared to practice
it or to practice it in full; they are not prepared to replace
their liberalism by Marxism. These people have their Marxism, but
they have their liberalism as well - they talk Marxism but
practice liberalism; they apply Marxism to others but liberalism
to themselves. They keep both kinds of goods in stock and find a
use for each. This is how the minds of certain people work.

Ibid., pp. 32-33

The people's state protects
the people. Only when the people have such a state can they
educate and remold themselves by democratic methods on a
country-wide scale, with everyone taking part, and shake off the
influence of domestic and foreign reactionaries (which is still
very strong, will survive for a long time and cannot be quickly
destroyed), rid themselves of the bad habits and ideas acquired in
the old society, not allow themselves to be led astray by the
reactionaries, and continue to advance - to advance towards a
socialist and communist society.

It is not hard for
one to do a bit of good. What is hard is to do good all one's life
and never do anything bad, to act consistently in the interests of
the broad masses, the young people and the revolution, and to
engage in arduous struggle for decades on end. That is the hardest
thing of all!